Picasso's weeping woman

by Mary Ann Caws

"Dora Maar was a successful young photographer who produced some disturbingly powerful Surrealist images as well as reportage, portraits, and fashion photography. Dora Maar was also Picasso's lover and muse for seven years. In that time she photographed him at work and play. In the studio and on the beach, alone and with friends such as Man Ray, Andre Breton, Jacqueline Lamba, and Paul Eluard.". "Maar and Picasso's stormy relationship reached a painful end in 1943. Maar was supported through the traumatic aftermath by her friend Jacques Lacan and went on to outlive Picasso by a quarter of a century. Almost nothing was known of her in those years, for she lived in religious seclusion, painting and writing poetry behind a veil of fiercely guarded privacy. "After Picasso, only God," she once said. As a result, her story acquired an almost mythic tone. She was seen as the tragic muse, a woman forever shattered by Picasso, the cruel genius. Mary Ann Caws tells a different story. This book p